Regional newspaper company Archant will press ahead with plans to axe subeditors and replace them with non-journalists.

Archant has confirmed to staff that it will employ 10 advertising designers to lay out pages at the East Anglian Daily Times and the Ipswich Evening Star, after cutting production staff at the two papers by a third, from 26 to 18.

The remaining editorial teams on the two Suffolk papers will have their pay frozen, Archant management confirmed to staff on Friday after a statutory consultation period.

Archant also said six vacant posts for reporting staff would not be filled and both papers would use a shared pool of reporters.

The advertising designers earn £7,500 less than trained subeditors.

They will design pages, while reporters and other writers will be drafted in to work on headlines - traditionally never part of their job.

All subeditors at both papers, except for those in management, have been offered a redundancy package or the choice of reapplying for their jobs.

The National Union of Journalists passed a motion at its annual delegates meeting on Sunday condemning the threat to journalism it said the Archant job cuts posed.

Martin Chambers, the NUJ representative at Archant Suffolk, said the plan was the "thin end of the wedge".

"Soon the company could replace all their highly-trained subeditors with staff who are not journalists," Chambers added.

"These cuts are not only an attack on the jobs and living standards of Archant staff, but will put the quality of the two newspapers in jeopardy."

MediaGuardian.co.uk approached Archant for a comment. The company said it would issue a statement later in the week.

Archant, which also owns the Eastern Daily Press in Norwich and the Hampstead & Highgate Express in London, reported profits were up 3.4% to £30.5m for 2007.

Subeditors at the Suffolk papers earn about £26,000 a year, but the ad designers in line to replace them earn about £18,500, according to the NUJ.

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